Kaleidoscope
by Idrelle Miocovani
Summary: "Time goes, you say? Ah, no! Alas, Time stays, we go." Moments from the variegated lives of the Inception team and others, before, during and after the events of the film.


**A/N:** I'm currently experimenting with a style of writing called a "50 Sentences" challenge – you are given a table of fifty prompts and have to write _one_ sentence to go with each prompt. Naturally, sometimes the grammar gets a bit flimsy, but it's a fun exercise. For 2011, I am writing a series of 50 Sentences challenges (four per month) covering many different fandoms and characters. Since I couldn't find a decent category to put the series in (this really isn't a crossover, so the crossover options are out), I am posting each entry separately in its own fandom. This is the fifth ficlet in the series, and if you'd like to keep track of them, there's an index in my profile listing the titles and fandoms of them all.

This story runs along the same line as my other _Inception_ fic, _Au troisième temps de la valse_.

The quote in the summary, which I found to be applicable to _Inception_ as a whole, was said by Henry Austin Dobson.

Thanks for reading!

* * *

**Kaleidoscope**

**1. Journey**

The human mind was a labyrinth – so many twists, so many turns, so many impossibilities, so many probabilities – and it was a privilege that bordered on the sacred to travel through its mazes.

**2. Eccentric**

"So, darling," Eames said, sliding into the booth and draining his drink, "have you ever wondered what it would be like to be someone else?"

**3. Array**

Some people collected books, others collected antiques; everyone had something, but for him, he collected memories – memories he wanted to forget, memories he couldn't let himself forget, memories he wanted to change, memories he couldn't change, memories that goaded his conscience, reminding him every day of the consequences he was fated to suffer.

**4. Abide**

Robert wanted nothing to do with his father, but he could never truly accept it; deep down, he knew he loved him, despite all the times he prayed for his father's death.

**5. Regenerate**

No matter how many dreams he went into, no matter how many times she died, Mal always came back, doing everything in her power to tear the world from his grasp.

**6. Ramble**

"So really," Ariadne said to Arthur as she unveiled the model for the first level, "what I was thinking was to create a cityscape where the main roads appear to be parallel to each other, but really they aren't; they kind of just circle around each other, and before you know it, you're in a completely different section of town from the place where you were supposed to be going and – why are you laughing, is it something I said?"

**7. Pseudo**

"You have got to be joking – I don't need some pseudo-science playing havoc with my brain, thank you very much!" Robert shouted, pushing the PASIV Device across the table and storming out of the room.

**8. Tardy**

"You're late," Cobb said as Arthur slowly opened his bleary eyes and sat up, "I thought the projections would have killed you a lot faster than that, considering all the distortion you were planning."

**9. Drumbeats**

"Oh, do shut up, I'm trying to concentrate," Ariadne snapped, eyeing Eames' fingers as they drummed on the tabletop to the beat of the music.

**10. Schism**

The dream was collapsing, and all Cobb could do was try to pry as much information as he could from his surroundings – until the ground before him cracked open and the house began to fall into the abyss, pulling him with it.

**11. Last**

"This is going to be my last job, Miles, I swear it."

**12. Innumerable**

"There's too many variables, Dom; do you have any idea how many things could go wrong and jeopardize _your_ life and the lives of our team?" Arthur shouted as they clattered down the airplane's stairs.

**13. Temp**

"Look, don't shoot," Arthur said, holding up his hands in surrender, swearing silently and hoping that Dom would hurry up with the extraction, "I'm _not_ the one you're looking for, I'm just filling in for him."

**14. Archaic**

"You are incredibly old-fashioned and cautious – why go one level when you can go two or three?"

**15. Save**

Robert looked up as the girl sped into the room and untied him; he was about to muttered his thanks when she suddenly pushed him out the window and he was falling, falling, falling… and waking up on the floor of the snowbound mountain fortress.

**16. Ephemeral**

"Well, that didn't last very long," Eames said smugly as he and Arthur watched Ariadne's retreating back.

**17. Parenthesis**

"And if Fischer finds what we want him to find in the third level, if the idea is planted and Inception is a success, if we all ride the kick back up the layers and _don't_ get stuck in limbo – what do you say we grab some coffee sometime, as long as it's not at a Tim Hortons?" Ariadne said.

**18. Footnote**

"Didn't anyone ever think to add 'Do not use when in the company of those who have psychotic projections' to the label?"

**19. Skip**

"Please don't mind me," Arthur said, backing away from the approaching projections, "I would really like to skip the part where you shoot me in the head."

**20. Sonic**

Ariadne used to love French singers, but after the job, she thought she would never be able to listen to _Non, je ne regrette rien_ ever again.

**21. Hopscotch**

James pointed shyly out the window at the playground and asked his grandmother, "Why doesn't Mummy want to play with me anymore?"

**22. Fob**

Arthur owned an ancient pocket watch that used to belong to his great-grandfather (it was a family heirloom of a kind); he kept it on him at all times, and if it hadn't been so heavy, he would have chosen it as his totem.

**23. Epoch**

"So," the man said, swilling his drink around his glass, "Cobb's retreated from our ranks, then… well, that will bring about the end of an era, eh?"

**24. Apparel**

"Funny how your mind decides exactly what you need to wear to fit in, even if it knows you won't like it," Ariadne said as she tugged at her uncomfortable skirt suit thing that she would have never, _ever_ worn in real life.

**25. Roam**

Mal loved to explore, to see, to journey – she had travelled the world, but even that was not as invigorating as an unconstructed dream-space just waiting to be discovered.

**26. Machine**

"It kind of looks like one of those sinister pseudo-scientific contraptions a super villain would make to drug his enemies," Ariadne said when she examined the PASIV Device for the first time.

**27. Companion**

"Just stay with me and try not to draw too much attention to yourself," Dom said when he and Mal arrived in their first shared dream; she, of course, ignored him.

**28. Ginger**

"You know, I've always really wanted to be ginger," Eames said as he prepared himself to take on his latest disguise.

**29. Spitfire**

"I'm coming with you, and I don't care what Miles says – he's my teacher, not my father, and this is my decision!"

**30. Mortal**

You could die countless times in a dream, but that never changed the fact that on the surface you were vulnerable.

**31. Loom**

"This seemed the best way to give the projections the most obstacles," Ariadne murmured as the mountain fortress loomed ahead of them, dark and massive against the horizon.

**32. Parallel**

After his training in Dream-Sharing begun, Dom had never expected to find someone who could truly understand him; but he had been lucky – Mal had found him.

**33. Paradox**

"The first rule," Miles said, "is to rule out all impossibilities; your mind is more agile than you give it credit – it can keep things straight, if you aren't afraid to let it work."

**34. Memory**

If an idea was the most resilient parasite, then memory was the most dangerous.

**35. Twist**

"Hello, Dom," Mal said, bursting through the doors, her pistol raised.

**36. Run**

"Now listen, this is very important – no matter how well-constructed your maze is, you cannot outrun projections, they will eventually catch up with you… but it's always good to try anyway, on a matter of principle."

**37. Notable**

"Do you think that if I had had any choice, I would have _chosen_ to become the most skilled extractor in the black market with a price on my head big enough to make me a target for every bounty hunter in the world?"

**38. Temporal**

There was some rule about "what happens in a dream, stays in a dream" – but real or not, all choices made in a dream were as real as they came, and their consequences even more permanent.

**39. Order**

A dream was organised chaos – you could control it, but only so far; you could impose order, but only so much; you could direct it, but it interpreted your choices… in the end, a dream was the substance of unpredictability.

**40. Cracks**

The cracks were already in place before Mal woke; afterward, she spent months trying to hide them, but even then they grew wider and wider until the abyss threatened to swallow her whole.

**41. Seconds**

About one thing she had to be absolutely clear: a second was a hell of a long time when you were asleep.

**42. Minutes**

"Why spend every minute of your existence struggling through life when you can have years to yourself to live without the pain and old age and the smell of decay?" the old woman croaked, one hand pressing protectively against the line attaching her to the PASIV Device.

**43. Years**

They had years together, down below, building and creating and dreaming, but now those moments seemed as dead to him as _she _was.

**44. Knots**

"Didn't you think to memorize my designs _before_ you tried to dream them up?" Ariadne hollered as she stared at the snarled mess Eames had created out of her carefully constructed labyrinth.

**45. Decutient**

He had never wanted to be a criminal, but fate had not been so kind – and now he had no choice but to press onwards, to be the best he could possibly be no matter how horrible things became, otherwise his children would be lost to him forever.

**46. Bow-tie**

"Arthur, if I ever see you wear a bow-tie like that again, I will shoot myself in the head," Eames said, slamming his shot glass down on the table.

**47. Pinstripes**

"I find it easier to dream up suits of exquisite taste than to buy them in real life; for one thing, they're a hell of a lot cheaper," Arthur said after Ariadne complimented him on his elegantly pinstriped choice of attire.

**48. History**

Over the course of time, great minds had sought to put their stamp on the world – to change it for better or for worse – and great wars had been fought, blood had been spilled, and millions had sacrificed their lives, but that was no longer the way; Somnacin and Dream-Sharing had changed everything, forever altering the course of history as the dream world became the battleground every great mind desired.

**49. Future**

"I can think of a few things I'd like to do," Ariadne said with a smile when Professor Miles inquired about her plans.

**50. Eternity**

A loved one could pass on, leaving you forever, but they never truly abandoned you – but for better or for worse, they would remain alive in your memories, in your dreams, and it was the best you could do.

_fin_


End file.
